


Welcome to the Test Kitchen!

by MovePastTheFeeling



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: (though all angst comes from Lena being dramatic and overreacting to everything), Angst, F/F, Fluff, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 07:36:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20404048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MovePastTheFeeling/pseuds/MovePastTheFeeling
Summary: Lena starts working at the CatCo Test Kitchen on a new video project and meets a goofy, over-the-top blonde with a penchant for beanies and kitchen gadgetsor, the Bon Appetit/Gourmet Makes AU





	Welcome to the Test Kitchen!

**Author's Note:**

> We're all madly in love with Claire Saffitz, right? Just imagine Lena with those grey streaks in her hair
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy! Also I promise I'm working on my Kara/Lena/Sam polyamory fic, I just really needed to write this one lol

“Hey, welcome to the CatCo Test Kitchen. I’m James.”

Lena regards the tall, objectively handsome man – James – standing in front of her and vigorously shakes his hand (one useful thing she learned from her comically short go at business school, she supposes).

“It’s great to be here,” she says. “I’m Lena, though I suppose you already know that. I’m a little surprised – I’ve heard like Cat Grant likes to dramatically introduce her kitchen.”

James laughs. “She certainly does. She’s out of town right now; otherwise she’d never let me do this. C’mon.”

James shows Lena around, introducing her to coworkers, showing her all the fancy kitchen gadgets they have, and telling her which breakroom has the best cereal in the mornings. The CatCo Test Kitchen – which supports the CatCo Culinary Magazine, the world’s foremost food publication – occupies a whole floor of this gorgeous building in National City and Lena couldn’t imagine a better place to work, especially after she quite literally ran out of business school and ended up pursuing her true passion – baking.

“Oh, and one last thing,” James says, stopping in place. “No dating coworkers. Cat says that ‘relationships should be confined to the one place where all their drama makes sense – television.’”

Lena raises an eyebrow at him. “That won’t be a problem.”

* * *

“Okay, Lena, you’re going to look into this camera and begin your introduction. Just keep it light and casual, like you’re talking to a friend,” James says, trying to keep his tone light and his smile friendly – it’s Lena’s first day on the job, after all. “And…action.”

Before Lena can even get a syllable out, however, a booming voice sounds from somewhere back in the kitchen. “Hey, dude, you’re going to kill it! Knock ‘em dead!”

James sighs audibly. “Cut!”

Lena turns around to see a gorgeous, broad-shouldered blonde woman smiling sheepishly at James. What was her name again? Kathy? Kiera? Katie?

“Kara, don’t you have work to do?” James says.

Kara – that’s right, _Kara_, Lena commits that to memory – just shrugs and casually adjusts her beanie.

“Don’t _you _have work to do, James?”

“Just – we’re filming a thing here, alright?”

“I know! I just wanted to make sure that Lena has a good day. She just started here, you know!”

“I’m aware, but you can’t just interrupt…”

Quickly realizing that these two are friends and could probably banter on forever, Lena decides to leap in before it keeps on going. “Guys, can we just do another take?”

“Yeah, you’re going to crush it!” Kara says, giving her an emphatic thumbs up. “You got this!”

James manages to sigh again before turning back to his camera, but Lena can’t help but feel warmth bloom in her chest. There’s nothing fake about Kara – it seems as if she really wants Lena to have the absolute best take possible.

“Okay, this is take two for ‘Untitled Test Kitchen Project,’” James says. “And…action!”

“Hey everyone, I’m Lena. I’m in the CatCo Test Kitchen, and today I’m making gourmet…”

* * *

“Yo, Lena, have you seen the response to your latest video?” Kara waves her over as if they’re good friends, while Lena’s pretty sure they’ve never had a full conversation yet.

“I haven’t, actually. I tend not to look at the internet’s reaction to anything, since…”

Lena trails off, expecting Kara to fill in the blanks – the Luthor family name isn’t exactly a positive association, especially since her brother has recently been released from jail and almost immediately joined one of those right-wing grifts on YouTube funded by oil money.

“Oh, I hear you,” Kara says. “I’m kind of scared of opening my Twitter sometimes; you wouldn’t believe the thirst messages I get.”

Lena hopes she’s not blushing, since she’s looked Kara up on Twitter and has seen hundreds upon hundreds of those exact messages. And, on top of that, Lena can’t disagree with any of them, Kara really does have the biceps of a goddess and the smile of an angel. But, more importantly, Kara either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the whole _Luthor_ thing, and Lena can’t help but be thrilled about that.

“Oh, yeah, people online can get real weird,” Lena says lamely.

“Yeah, but people online also love you and your show! Here, look.”

Kara holds her phone out for Lena to see, who tries resisting at first.

“C’mon, just look, Lena. I promise it’s good.”

Lena sighs dramatically but relents, especially since Kara is pouting at her now, and that’s really just not fair at all. As she starts scrolling through the comments on her first video, however, she starts to understand why Kara’s so adamant about her seeing this. They’re absolutely effusive in their praise, lauding everything from her intense, scientific approach to food to the brief flashes of her acerbic, sharp humor to, somewhat more embarrassingly, the color of her eyes and the sharpness of her jawline.

“Wow, that’s… wow,” Lena says, her typical eloquence failing her.

“Yeah, you’re a star!” Kara says. “I knew it, of course. I’ve just got a sense for these things.”

Lena just laughs. “Well, thank you, Kara. I never would’ve looked otherwise.”

“Hey, I got you. I can be your social media translator for you. And, I completely agree with everything that people have been saying. You’ve been doing such an incredible job with your show – you’re killing it, man!”

A smile comes across Lena’s face, as she realizes that she’s just made a friend – a rare occurrence in her life.

* * *

“Whoa, where are you running off to?”

“Sorry, Kara, I’m making these gourmet peanut butter cups and I was trying not to make peanut butter, but now everyone is telling me I have to make my own peanut butter, and…”

“Hey, slow down,” Kara says, putting her hands on Lena’s shoulders. Lena is suddenly distinctly aware of just how muscular Kara is. “You know, my old man always used to tell me that making peanut butter is just like making love.”

Lena just stares at her for a moment. “What are you talking about?”

“No idea, my dad was always kind of weird. I bet you’re less stressed now, though, thinking about that saying and not the task at hand.”

Lena hums, cocking her head to the side. “You know, I actually am. Thanks, I think?”

“You got it!” Kara says, smiling brightly at her before pointing directly at the camera. “Did you get that? That’s some free Kara Danvers life advice right there. Cut the check.”

“Okay, don’t push it, Danvers,” Lena says.

“That’s what I do best, though!” Kara says. “You’re going to crush these peanut butter cups.”

Kara wraps her up in a quick hug before vanishing off to some other part of the kitchen, leaving Lena feeling a little breathless.

The peanut butter cups do turn out perfectly, and Lena files away the moan that leaves Kara’s lips when she takes a bite in a very specific place in her brain. It’s possible, Lena figures, that she’d like for Kara to be a little more than a friend.

* * *

“Tell me how this is. Also, I want you to understand that I can’t take any criticism right now.”

Kara just stares at her before taking a bite of the lumpy, misshapen hunk of deep-fried corn that’s supposed to be a gourmet chip. Lena tries her hardest not to react as Kara forces a smile after she swallows.

“Wow, that’s really good!” Kara says, her voice overly cheery, even for her.

“Well, I can tell you’re lying.”

“But I’m doing exactly what you asked me to!”

Lena just rolls her eyes. “Okay, you’re not helpful. Go back to – what are you working on, exactly?”

Kara shrugs. “No idea, but they just bought me a new meat tenderizer, so I’m stoked!”

Lena just stares as Kara pumps her fist in the air and disappears off into the kitchen.

“You’re so weird!” Lena calls out after her.

“You love it!” Kara fires right back.

Once again, Lena really hopes she isn’t blushing; she can’t exactly disagree with that.

* * *

“Right, but I don’t _have_ to temper the chocolate, right?” Lena asks, desperation creeping into her voice.

Winn, who’s wearing a tie that Lena is tempted to strangle him with right now, stands there with his hands on his hips and a disapproving look on his face.

“I’m sorry, I just think it’ll work out better that way,” he says.

Lena bites back a dramatic sigh, knowing the cameras are focusing in on every little expression she makes. “I just had to do this for the last gourmet thing I did.”

“Well, look at it this way – do you want to go back to making gourmet chips?”

“Oh god, I can’t even talk to you right now.”

“Hey, I can help with the chocolate,” Kara says, strolling into the scene.

“Do you even know how to do it?” Winn asks.

“Uh, no, but I’m a fast learner,” Kara says. “I’m really smart, as you know.”

“I may take you up on that,” Lena says, flattered by Kara’s eagerness to help. “Actually, what time is it?”

“4:30,” Winn answers, checking his watch.

Lena breathes a huge sigh of relief.

“Just what I wanted to hear,” she says, before looking down the barrel of the camera. “I don’t want to start anything crazy right now, so we’re going to come back to this whole mess tomorrow with, let’s say, renewed spirits.”

James lets the cameras roll for a few moments longer before cutting. Lena exhales audibly, resting against one of the kitchen counter, ignoring the flour she’s getting on her blouse.

“Hey, you doing alright?” Kara asks, voice surprisingly soft.

Kara begins to slowly rub Lena’s back, a welcome, comforting gesture. 

“No, I’m fine,” Lena says, leaning into Kara’s touch. “Just letting the stress get to me a little.”

“Well, hey, why don’t you join me and my friends for drinks?” Kara asks. “There’s a great bar nearby that has a late happy hour.”

Lena almost says no, but Kara just looks so eager to spend time with her that it sways her. Besides, her big plans for the evening were eating leftovers and maybe finishing that book on her nightstand, so it’s not like anything particularly worthwhile is being disrupted.

“Sure, I’ll join you guys.”

Kara’s smile grows even brighter, and it’s then that Lena begins to wonder what the workplace rules on dating are.

They head to the bar, and it turns out that Kara’s group of friends include her adoptive sister, Alex, Alex’s wife, Maggie, several people from the office, including Winn and James, and a few others like Lucy and Vasquez who Kara seems to know because she’s the nicest person in the entire world. Lena is amazed that they can all fit in this bar. It’s a real hole-in-the-wall, though the interior is much nicer than what the outside might suggest, and Kara seems to know the owner, which is probably how they can get away with packing it to this degree.

Kara makes sure to introduce Lena to every single one of her friends and is sure to heap piles of praise upon her. Lena has to try her hardest not to blush and stammer every time Kara says something nice about her, like “she’s the real star out of all of us!” and “people online call her their queen, and you get it, right?”

Alex, who’s in town for a week to visit her sister, buys the first round for everyone, citing her need to put her doctor’s salary to good use. Kara cheers her on and downs her shot of whiskey with such ease that Lena can’t help but feel impressed.

At one point during the night, Lena ends up talking to James. It’s not that he’s boring, but her gaze wanders to Kara in the middle of their conversation. For a moment, Lena gets lost in staring at Kara, who looks angelic even in the dim lighting of the bar. When she focuses back in on her conversation with James, he’s looking at her with a knowing twinkle in his eye.

It’s then that Lena realizes just how screwed she is. To call it a crush to her seems reductive; Lena knows that, already, that this feels like something more.

It doesn’t help when Lena and Kara end up as the last two people at the bar as they wait for their rideshares to arrive. They lean against the window that looks into the bar, enjoying the warmth of the evening, wrapped up in one another’s company.

A strand of Kara’s hair has fallen out of place as she talks, and it takes all Lena’s willpower not to brush it aside, just to have an excuse to touch her. Kara has never looked more beautiful, Lena thinks, even standing here beneath the neon bar sign and the buzzing, yellow streetlight. She wishes she could stay there with Kara forever.

And that terrifies her.

* * *

Lena can’t have a crush on her coworker. Not only is it against company policy, she just can’t do it. She can’t do that to her own heart, and she certainly can’t do that to Kara, who’s probably not even gay and if she were, wouldn’t be interested in her anyway.

So, she pushes all of her feelings down, as far as they can go. She’s still friendly to Kara, of course, because who couldn’t be, but she also puts up more of a wall of professional politeness. Kara certainly picks up on the change in her behavior, and it breaks Lena’s heart, but it’s better than the alternative. It has to be. Besides, Kara is _Kara_. Kara could probably do better than Lena. Right? 

Everything goes perfectly according to plan, until, of course, Kara just up and confronts her about it. Not part of the plan.

“Are you sure everything is okay?” Kara asks again, and Lena is having a hard time coming up with what might seem like a satisfactory answer.

“Yeah, everything is fine,” Lena says, a flat smile on her face. “Work is crazy, but when is it not.”

Kara chuckles weakly. “Right, of course, yeah.”

She stares down at her feet for a moment, before looking back up. Lena curses those disarming baby blues – they really aren’t fair.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” Kara asks.

“No, of course not, Kara,” Lena is quick to say.

“Okay,” Kara says, clearly not believing her. “I just want to make sure I didn’t say anything wrong, or do something to make you uncomfortable…”

“Maybe this isn’t about you,” Lena snaps, feeling uneasy and terribly sad and desperate to escape this conversation.

Kara’s mouth snaps shut.

“Right, of course,” she says. “I’ll see you around, I guess.”

Lena has to watch as Kara walks off, dejected.

* * *

Lena buys the most expensive bottle of whiskey she can find at her local supermarket and takes it back to her apartment so she can down the whole thing in peace. It’s one lesson she’s taken to heart from her monster of a mother – if you’re going to get wasted, do it luxuriously. She may have been cut off from the Luthor fortune, but she can still do this.

Lena pours out an obscene glass of whiskey and takes a throat-searing gulp of the amber liquid. She thinks about Kara. Logically, it never would’ve worked out between them anyway, regardless of Cat’s feelings on office romance.

For one, Lena still has those nasty associations with the Luthor family and especially with Lex, who’s in jail for funneling company money to white nationalist groups all around the country. Then there’s the likelihood that Kara is straight. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened to Lena, and it certainly won’t be the last. And if by some miracle Kara isn’t straight, why would she go for someone like Lena? Kara is beautiful and tall and smart and surprisingly muscular, she could have anyone she wanted. And that anyone probably wouldn’t be Lena.

Lena looks back down at the bottle of whiskey and it’s somehow already half drunk. She shrugs and pours herself another glass.

* * *

“Wow, you look awful,” Winn says as Lena shuffles into the kitchen the next day. “Long night?”

“Please shut up, Schott,” Lena grumbles.

Winn looks around the kitchen to find it surprisingly sparse, and so leans in closer to Lena as if to tell her a secret.

“Is this about Kara?” he asks.

Lena has to try her hardest not to react to that, but given the upward quirk of Winn’s eyebrow, she must have failed.

“I knew it,” he whispers. “You should just talk to her. I’m sure you could work something out.”

“I can’t talk to her, I’ve already fucked everything up,” Lena hisses. “Besides, we can’t date coworkers. Cat hates that, apparently.” 

* * *

Lena begins to think she’s actually going to make it through that week when James taps her on the shoulder and tells her that Cat wants to see her. This is surprising for several reasons – the first is that she didn’t even realize that Cat was back in town, and the second being that Cat really doesn’t talk to her employees unless she’s yelling at them all as a group.

Even though she’s been in much worse situations than this, Lena feels her heart pounding against her ribcage as she waits outside of Cat’s office. She swipes furiously at a small dusting of flour on her pants that just refuses to go away.

“Ms. Luthor, I suggest you don’t take out your frustrations on that innocent, albeit ill-fitting, pair of pants.”

Lena looks up to see Cat standing in her now-open doorway. She hates being caught off guard like this.

“Of course, Ms. Grant,” Lena says smoothly. “You wanted to see me?”

“I did,” Cat says. “Come in.”

Lena steps into her office and realizes she hasn’t been in here since her interview – it’s even sparser now than it was then, evidence towards Cat’s increasingly long business trips and seemingly impromptu vacations. She sits down on one of the chairs that face Cat’s desk.

“Lena,” Cat says, steepling her fingers. “I wanted to let you know that you’re fired.”

Lena shoots upright, the feet of her chair groaning against the hardwood floor. Cat holds up her hand, cutting her off.

“Now, before you unleash your righteous fury upon me, I also wanted to let you know that I’m bringing you on as a ‘Free-Lance, Consulting Food Editor,’ a position I’ve just now made up.”

Lena furrows her brow, now feeling thoroughly confused. She remembers that Lex would often shuffle people’s positions and titles in order to obfuscate some of his illegal activities, but she sincerely doubts that’s what Cat is doing now.

“Let me explain. I’ve heard that you’re torturing yourself over Kara – I can’t imagine why you would, she’s a loudmouthed jock-adjacent type – but, since you’re apparently angsting over our no dating policy, I’m giving you a way around that. Oh, and I’m increasing your pay by ten percent; you’re making me a lot of money with your little video series.”

Lena sits back down, feeling thoroughly overwhelmed. 

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, it’s not me you want to be talking to right now, is it?”

* * *

Lena rushes into the test kitchen to find Kara standing by one of the stovetops, a beanie shoved over her unruly blonde hair and a dishtowel slung over her shoulder. In all her years, Lena doesn’t think she’s seen a more beautiful sight.

“Kara, I need to talk to you,” Lena says, ignoring everyone else in the kitchen – including James and his camera. “I – I wanted to apologize. I’ve been such an idiot.”

“Lena, wait…” Kara says.

“No, please, let me finish. I’m so sorry for what I said the other day and the way I’ve been treating you. The truth is – it was all about you. I was scared about the way I felt and I was using Cat’s rule against office relationships as an excuse to avoid dealing with any of this.” 

“I understand, Lena, but…”

“You never did anything wrong, Kara. It was all me being a completely idiot. But, Cat just called me into her office and fired me, sort of, but I’m still working here, just so I wouldn’t have to worry about that rule. This _is_ about you, Kara, and I wanted to ask you…”

“Lena!” Kara says. “It’s okay. I promise. But, uh, I’ve been trying to tell you that I’m doing a livestream right now. Which James better have stopped filming!”

Lena’s cheeks burn bright red as James smiles cheekily at the two of them.

“Sorry, I can’t cut the feed,” he says. “It’s for charity, after all.”

“James, you little…” Kara sighs.

“Oh god,” Lena says. “Well, I guess I can’t go back now.”

Lena takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders.

“Kara, would you like to get dinner with me?”

Kara smiles, brighter than the sun.

“I’d love to.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! Kudos/comments are always appreciated!!


End file.
